


The Bright Sun Shines (Over the Doom and Gloom)

by delighted



Series: A Cure for Doom and Gloom [8]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-06 17:57:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6764218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Danny spend the weekend with the kids.</p>
<p>(Series complete...ish.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Saturday Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this took a lot longer than I'd thought it would. *sighs exhaustedly* But, it's finally done. :-)
> 
> I think this is it for D&G, so I am calling it "complete" for now. I might come back to it at some point, there's still a lot I'd wanted to do. But for now, this is a nice place to leave off. So, on that note:
> 
> I'm so grateful, once more, for all of you! It's been an amazing experience for me, and you've all been a part of that. So, thank you again. And I hope you enjoy this one! I know you've been waiting for it.......
> 
> J-- Completely aside from everything else, DG8 would simply not be what it is without your words to me, without you listening to mine..... Thank you.
> 
> Alright, here we go. Three chapters-- today, tomorrow, and Sunday.

When Danny woke up Saturday morning, Steve was already up. He heard thumping sounds and rustling sounds, coming from downstairs. He looked over at his bedside table for his phone to check the time, saw that Steve had left him coffee in an insulated mug, and smiled. Pulling on shorts, he picked up the coffee and padded softly to the stairs, wondering what on earth Steve was doing. He got halfway down to the living room and stilled, seeing Steve with enough gear for a small army. Biting his lips together to keep from smiling, he stood there, watching as Steve laid supplies out, checking over everything as though he were going on a mission, not just to the back yard with two kids. The hand that wasn’t holding Danny’s coffee went to his heart for a moment and he took a calming breath, before going the rest of the way down the stairs, setting the mug down, and walking up to Steve for a kiss.

“Thank you, babe,” he said, when he pulled back.

Steve smirked, and resumed his work, leaving Danny standing there, bemused.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll just watch, shall I?” He asked, fondly.

Steve looked at his watch. “Danny, you should go get ready. Grace said to be there at eight.”

“Oh, really?” Danny asked, swallowing a chuckle. “So, now you and she are in charge of scheduling?”

“Well, yeah, Danny, we’re better at it than you are, so yeah.” And, he sounded completely serious, and Danny could barely contain his laughter.

“Ok, babe. I’ll, uh, go get ready.” And a little snort escaped his best intentions, but he thought he covered it quite well.

By the time Danny was ready to go get the kids, Steve had gone out to finish the grocery shopping, so Danny had a moment by himself to calm his nerves over how this weekend was going to go—how anxious he was they all get along, how much he knew Steve was anticipating getting to know Charlie, not to mention how nervous Danny was about Charlie sleeping over for the first time. There was so much riding on this weekend, it was kind of hard not to be tense. Still, Danny tried to collect himself, tried to “think positively,” and tried to tell himself it would all be ok. As Steve had said, no matter how it went, they’d all be together, and that was what was important.

Grace and Charlie were both ready and waiting by the door when Danny pulled up, and Charlie raced out and jumped into his arms. Smiling kind of uncontrollably at that, Danny found himself feeling a bit giddy as well, as he settled his overly excited son into the back seat. He threw their bags in the trunk and took a deep breath, climbing in front—next to Grace, who was now permitted shotgun, though Danny still had a hard time accepting it emotionally. Grace turned the radio to her favorite station, and they all waved bye to Rachel and drove off.

“Danno, I need to get some things from your house before we go to Uncle Steve’s,” Grace said, once they were underway.

Danny was frankly proud of himself for controlling his reaction to that announcement. So, instead of “Why didn’t you warn me!” or “Wait? _What_?” or something, he actually came out with “Ok, monkey,” though inside he was freaking out. _Well, crap_ , he thought to himself, playing through the way they’d left things last Thursday morning, wondering if there was any way she wouldn’t notice that he hadn’t been home since then. (Oh, my God, had he really not been home in more than a week? How had he not even noticed that?) He found it doubtful that, detective’s daughter that she was, she wouldn’t uncover some clue of his absence. He _was_ sure of at least one thing, which was that Steve had made Charlie’s bed, and put his towel in the laundry. So, at least there was that.

They pulled up to the house and went inside, Charlie running to play in his room, which, ok, made Danny really, really happy. Grace disappeared into her room, and Danny followed Charlie, to watch him in the room they had set up together. He smiled as he watched Charlie, and as he sat down on the bed, he almost thought he could smell Steve, which made his heart kind of thud loudly. Charlie decided he wanted to bring some of his toys with them, so Danny grabbed a bag from the closet, and they were packing them when Grace showed up in the doorway.

“Ok, Danno,” she announced. “I’m ready when you are.”

Whatever she’d needed to get she’d already put in her bag, and Danny didn’t have time to wonder what it might be, as Charlie seemed to suddenly remember where they were going, and tugged on Danny’s arm to get him to hurry up.

When they pulled up at Steve’s, Danny looked in the backseat at Charlie. His eyes were wide open, mouth parted slightly in an “ooh,” and he was practically bouncing out of his booster seat. Grace climbed out and helped Charlie to get out, and they ran to the door, where Steve was standing, waiting for them. Danny got the bags out of the trunk, smiling at Steve as he ushered the kids inside. Danny followed, with the bags, which he took upstairs, while the kids stared at the gear laid out in the living room. He heard Steve start to take them through what everything was.

He went to Mary’s room to drop off the kids's bags, then to Steve’s room to put his swim trunks on. He stood at the bathroom sink, trying to calm his nerves, telling himself it was all going to be ok, but he was suddenly very keenly aware of what he was doing, bringing his kids here, to this _home_. And maybe he was a little afraid of how much he was going to love it, and what it might mean to him, sharing them so intimately with Steve, and how there was absolutely no going back after this.... He thought about how attached Steve already was to Grace, how attached she was to him, and how that might change now. His mind was frankly kind of a mess, but he swallowed around those thoughts, forcing himself to focus just on going moment by moment... and enjoying it for what it was. But he couldn’t help it, his mind was jumping all over the place, and already, having the three people he loved most under one roof was kind of doing strange things to his heart.

Danny came back down to find the three of them still going over the pile of gear in the living room. “We’ll set the tent up later, but let’s get out to the water before that,” Steve was saying. “Got your suits already on, I see.”

“And sunscreen already on, too,” Grace said with a smile at Danny.

“Thanks, monkey,” Danny acknowledged, smiling back, and walking over to them, watching Steve, who was kneeling down to Charlie.

“Hey, buddy, would you like to ride on my paddle board with me?” He asked, and Danny could hear the tension in Steve's voice, and couldn't resist saying "Aww" in his head.

Danny held his breath, not just because he was anxious about letting his son out on the open sea with the sharks and horrible things, but because, and maybe more so, he knew Steve really wanted this, and would be hurt if Charlie said no.

Charlie looked, wide-eyed, up at Steve, and Danny could tell he was simply in awe of the man. He nodded enthusiastically, though, and Danny had to blink back a few tears.

“Ok, great!” Steve exclaimed, and Danny couldn’t help but smile at Steve's evident relief and excitement. “Here, put this on,” Steve said, holding out the small life vest he’d shown Danny when he’d asked if it would be ok for him to take Charlie out.

Danny sighed softly as he remembered Steve first showing him the vest.

“Danny,” he’d said, in his serious voice, but there’d been more than a little hint of anxiety in his tone. “I’d really like to take Charlie out on my paddle board this weekend, do you think that would be ok?” And he’d looked so nervous, but also like it meant so much to him. Danny had felt panic and fear fill his lungs at the thought, and Steve of course had known why. “I have a life vest for him, Danny, I’ll stay close to land, I’ll be very careful... please?”

Not sure what to react to first, Danny had stammered for a bit. “You got him a vest?” He’d settled on, eventually. “When?”

Steve had grinned at that. “The other day at lunch when I went out,” he’d said, sounding very proud of himself.

“Hang on, you got the vest before you asked me?” And he had wanted to be upset by that, but Steve had looked so hopeful, so excited, and Danny had just not known what to think.

Steve might have tried to hide the smirk, but it’d come through anyway. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say no if I already had it.....”

Suddenly Danny’s heart had filled with the realization that between Steve and the kids, he was absolutely in trouble. He’d sighed, and covered his face with his hands. “It’s like having three kids,” he’d mumbled, and Steve’s smirk had widened, knowing Danny wasn’t going to say no.

“Thanks, Danny,” Steve had said, and kissed Danny on the cheek, bouncing with excitement as he’d placed the vest, so very carefully, back on the shelf of the closet.

Pulling himself back to the present, Danny grabbed the stack of towels and small cooler that Steve had set out in the dining room, and they all headed down to the beach. While Steve got the paddle board set up, Grace and Danny settled into the chairs, towels spread out, cooler with drinks by their side.

The boys headed out into the water, Charlie riding on Steve’s shoulders till they got past the wave break, then Steve hoisted Charlie onto the board and climbed up. They both looked so happy, so free, so excited, Danny’s heart just wasn’t even sure he could take it. He looked over at Grace who was looking at him with a knowing smile.

He tilted his head at her, as if to ask “what?”

“Danno...” she started, looking hesitant but also determined. He tried to not react, but his heart was racing. “Are you in love with Uncle Steve?”

He realized he was holding his breath. He’d tried not to think too much about it, but he had kind of imagined that they were not likely to get through the weekend without her picking up on something. And, he had to admit he did tend to wear his heart on his sleeve... and on his face. Add to that what Steve had said about her noticing, and her own words to him on that Thursday morning... and he supposed the only thing that surprised him was how quickly she'd come right to the point. He closed his eyes and swallowed.

“Yeah, monkey, I am.” And, really, it was the only way he could possibly answer her question. He was never going to lie about  _that_ , and he was _never_ going to lie to her.

“Good,” she said. And it was with such strength of emotion, and such a sense of “finally,” that Danny huffed out a laugh, and couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah, monkey?” He asked.

“Danno,” she replied, rolling her eyes slightly in a terrifyingly teenagerish way. “Some of us have known for a long time.”

And he laughed. “Oh, really?” He asked, feeling warm all over. “Like who?” And he was teasing, but her reply shocked him.

“Like me and Uncle Steve, Danno.”

And Danny actually had to keep himself from falling off his chair. Clearly there was a conversation he needed to have with Steve.... And he had one fleeting moment of almost asking her if Rachel knew, but pulled himself away from anything that would put his daughter in the middle of that whole can of worms.

“Well, I know now too,” he said instead.

“I’m so glad, Danno,” and she was smiling in a way that reminded him of how she used to smile when she was a kid and got something she’d been wanting, and he felt utterly bemused by that. That she thought that much about it, that she _felt_ that much about it... just about made his heart just overflow. He blinked to clear his eyes, which had gone misty.

“Me, too, monkey,” he said, softly. “Me, too.”

When the boys came back from their little voyage, Steve got the kids to help him put up the tent while Danny made lunch. Not wanting to miss what he felt sure was going to be an entertaining event, Danny grabbed the sandwich things and loaded them on the tray, and took that out to the lanai so he could make sandwiches for everyone while he watched Steve lead his kids in the art of properly setting up a tent. He’d actually been a little bit worried that Steve might be too hard a task master for the tender sensibilities of his two sweet children, but he should have known better. Grace argued with him about procedure, and Charlie climbed on his back, stealing tent poles and using them as weapons. Finishing the sandwiches, Danny sat back in his chair and soaked in every moment of the splendor playing out in front of him. He wished he could bottle it up to have to sip on those sunny Saturdays he was childless.

Once the tent was up, they traipsed over to where Danny was sitting to proudly show off their accomplishment. He congratulated them all, then sent them in to wash hands and get drinks. Steve lingered long enough to steal a quick kiss, and Danny whispered “Thank you” as he did. Steve was smiling so hugely, Danny found himself thinking that having the kids around was really good for Steve. Allowing that thought to soak in a bit, he saw that of course it made so much sense. Steve being busy, Steve taking care of people, those were things that kept him from falling into that gloomy place of over-controlling. Kind of like Danny’s realization that Steve needed attention, Danny saw that Steve needed to give it as well. And, yeah, he liked giving it to Danny, and of course Danny loved that. But this helped on a different level. And maybe it was partly healing his own lack of childhood affection and maybe just the too early loss of family, and maybe it just soothed his missing Mary and Joanie, and maybe it was a bit of all of those.... Whatever the reason, it was very clear to Danny that being around the kids was going to be not just something that would be really good for Steve, but something he was going to  _want_ to do, and Danny was more than a little overwhelmed by that.

After they ate, Charlie wanted to play in the tent, so he and Steve did that while Grace did some homework and Danny did some cleaning up. Before too long, Steve came up to the house, Charlie riding on his shoulders, looking a little droopy.

“Looks like someone’s ready for his nap,” Danny said.

“Yes, please,” Steve replied.

“He means me, Uncle Steve,” Charlie laughed.

“Oh, ok, buddy,” Steve said fondly, setting him down.

Danny put Charlie in Mary’s room for his nap, then came downstairs to find Grace and Steve on the sofa, huddled together, whispering softly. He smiled, shook his head, and swallowed around the lump that seemed to be permanently lodged in his throat. Sitting on the other side of Grace from Steve, he felt when Steve’s arm came around both of them, and reached up to squeeze Steve’s hand, finding Steve’s grasp on his wouldn’t let go.

“So, did you pick something to watch?” He asked, hoping his voice wouldn’t betray his emotions.

“Yep,” Grace smiled, and pressed play on something that was undoubtedly romantic and predictable and Danny actually was kind of looking forward to watching Steve cope with it.

After a while, it occurred to Danny that Grace had chosen this fluff specifically to torment them both, and he smiled apologetically at Steve, who had clearly had the same thought. “I think I’ll go get some snacks,” Danny said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen. He got out some of the peppermint patties from the freezer and ate one right away, hoping it would cool him down. He was putting popcorn in a bowl when he felt Steve’s arms wrap around him from behind. “Steven!” Danny hissed.

“She sent me in,” Steve whispered in his ear, biting it softly, then kissing it. “Said it looked like you needed a kiss.”

Danny knew his jaw dropped, but any thoughts he might have had in that split second about scolding her fled as soon as Steve groaned into his mouth, having tasted the chocolate. Instead, he admitted: “She was right.” He smiled, and shook his head. “You two are trouble, you know that?”

Steve smirked.

“Ok, let’s go back in there before Little Miss Interference gets any more ideas,” and he grabbed two beers and a soda from the fridge, put them on the tray with the chocolates and the popcorn, and kissed Steve once more before picking up the tray and heading back to the living room.

They’d made it maybe halfway through the movie before Charlie came sleepily downstairs, crawled onto Steve’s lap, and promptly fell back asleep.

Danny had to catch his breath, and covered his mouth with his hand, shaking his head in amazement. He and Grace shared delighted smiles at the look on Steve’s face, which was stunned and thrilled in equal measure, and Danny wished he could frame this moment and have it always.

“I think you’ve made a friend,” Grace whispered to Steve, brushing the hair out of Charlie’s eyes.

Steve was speechless, looking at Danny with a combination of shock, awe, and completely done for. Danny pressed his lips together, tilting his head to the side, and letting a single tear roll down his cheek. “Thank you,” he mouthed, and Steve simply grinned back.

They had nearly finished the movie when Charlie woke back up. He settled against Steve’s chest, taking the popcorn he was offered. As soon as the credits started, he twisted around to look at Steve and asked: “Can we go back on the paddle board, Uncle Steve?”

Danny could tell it took Steve a second to gather himself before he could respond: “Sure thing buddy! Go get your suit on, ok?”

Charlie jumped off Steve’s lap, and ran up the stairs, leaving Steve looking at Danny like he was afraid his heart was going to explode. Grace, evidently sensing they needed a moment, got up. “I’ll just make sure he’s ok,” she said, and took the stairs two at a time.

Danny was smiling so hugely at Steve. “So, good call with the paddle boarding, evidently, babe.”

Steve just shook his head, and smiled. “I just.... Oh, man, how does your heart even cope? It’s just too much,” he said.

Leaning forward to kiss Steve quickly, Danny whispered. “Yeah, I know.” He smiled at Steve then took his hand. “Come on, let’s change too, Grace and I are going to build a sandcastle to rival all sandcastles.”


	2. Saturday Evening

Once the sandcastle was built and sufficiently documented on social media, they all headed up to the house to grab things for the hot-dogs-on-the-beach portion of the evening. Grace and Danny made a salad, while Charlie helped Steve get the grill going.

“Charlie’s not usually that quick to warm up to someone,” Danny said, to Grace as they sliced tomatoes.

“Yeah, I know, Danno,” she replied, and there was something suspicious about her tone, Danny couldn’t help but think.

“You’ve been talking about Steve to Charlie,” he said. “I know that, but this was more....”

She smiled. “I knew it would be important to you that Charlie be comfortable here,” she said, letting the layers she wasn’t actually saying float to the top with her eyes. “So, I’ve been telling him about it, showing him pictures... all those things help him feel more comfortable, like he already knew the place, like he already knew Uncle Steve.”

Danny pulled her into a hug. “Come here,” he said, and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you.”

“I just want you both to be happy, Danno. You deserve it,” she said, and Danny had to admit to himself that it meant a lot more than he had realized it would, knowing that Grace felt that way—both about him being happy, and about that meaning being with Steve. He hadn’t let himself think too much about it, and yeah, she’d been one of the ones who had pushed him to realize—to admit—that it was Steve he wanted... but. He’d had this thing about keeping himself from relationships because he put her first, and there was always going to be part of him that needed to do that. But maybe because Steve and Grace had their own relationship, independent of Danny, maybe that made all the difference in the world. He shook his head slightly as he saw there was more than a little truth to that. Steve and Grace had chosen each other before Danny and Steve had... and, yeah. That was, Danny realized, huge.

They finished the salad and took it and drinks out to the beach, where Steve had laid out the big blanket on the sand, and he and Charlie were setting up the hot dogs, buns, and condiments on the table Steve had brought down from the lanai. Grace set the salad and drinks on the table as well, then walked down to the water to splash her toes in the ripples at the edge of the sand.

Danny sat on the blanket, watching the three loves of his life, sipping his beer, and thinking to himself that this was absolute perfection. Charlie had the grill tongs, and Steve was helping him to turn the hot dogs, but some were getting burned, and one got dropped in the sand, and Danny knew that this moment would be etched in his mind forever.

When the hot dogs were done, they all sat on the blanket, in a circle, the kids on either side of Steve and Danny, and Danny had to admit, the hot dogs were pretty good. “Not Jersey,” he said to Steve, with a grin, “but not bad.”

And Steve smirked back at him, and congratulated Charlie on a job well done as grill master.

After they finished, Grace took Charlie up to the house to get ready for bed, giving Steve and Danny a blessed moment together on the beach.

“Babe,” Danny said, after they pulled reluctantly apart from a sweet but also very passionate kiss. “Thank you so much for today. I can’t imagine a more perfect day.”

Steve grinned. “Me neither, Danny,” Steve whispered, and Danny could tell that Steve was still in awe over Charlie’s swift attachment. “I guess I have some special power you Williams boys just can’t resist,” Steve said, playfully, then kissed Danny again, and then pulled him up to gather the things to take back to the house.

Danny smiled fondly, shook his head, but admitted there was probably a grain of truth in there somewhere... along with all the grains of sand that were everywhere. And if he let himself grouse about the sand, he did it with love.

When they got back to the house, Danny left Steve to deal with the dishes and things while he went to check on the kids. Grace had gotten Charlie in his bath, but he refused to stay in for long. Once he was out and dry and in his pajamas, he ran downstairs to see Uncle Steve. Before Grace got in for her shower, she pulled Danny aside and handed him a soft bundle.

“Here, Danno, you’d better wear this to sleep in tonight,” she said.

He looked down and saw that it was the “I (heart) seals” shirt from the aquarium. He’d forgotten all about that. Suddenly he realized why she’d needed to go by the house.

Grace smiled at the look of surprise on his face. “Charlie’s been talking about it, and I was pretty sure you hadn’t worn it yet....” Danny had a very odd feeling about just how much his daughter knew about where he’d been spending his nights. “I was glad to see you had actually washed it, at least,” she said, on a smirk that was far too like Steve, and far too knowing for Danny’s comfort.

Before he could have a little conversation with her about that, she ducked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Shaking his head, he looked down at the shirt again, and went to Steve’s bathroom to get ready for bed.

Grace, stunningly, was even faster in the bathroom than he managed to be, and when he wandered downstairs in his sweats and seal shirt, the three of them were sitting on the sofa, Steve in the middle, one kid on each side, and Danny actually had to stop and admire the view. He’d always been very keenly aware of just how attractive a man Steve McGarrett was. It was kind of impossible to miss. But, seeing him here like this, well, that was just “attractive” on a whole new level. Unfortunately, Danny’d let his guard down at the same time he’d forgotten what he was wearing, so he was completely unprepared for the simultaneous reactions of Charlie and Steve—the smaller one jumped up and ran to him in glee (“You’re wearing the shirt, Danno!”), while the larger one stayed on the sofa, mouth fallen open, and heat sparking in those hazel eyes.

Charlie, having hugged Danny, turned back to Steve.

“Danno got that at the aquarium, Uncle Steve! We love the seals there. Don’t you?”

“Well, I’ve never been to the aquarium, Charlie, but yeah, I love seals, too.”

Charlie frowned. “Danno, how come you haven’t taken Uncle Steve to the aquarium?”

Steve, predictably, joined in. “Yeah, Danno, how come you haven’t taken me to the aquarium?”

Grace, helpful child that she was, suggested a solution: “We could take him sometime,” she pointed out, and Danny had to wonder how much of this she’d thought through, how much she had an agenda here. He bit his lips together to try to not react to that thought.

Excited by the suggestion, Charlie turned to Danny. “Oh, can we, Danno?”

Danny looked at Steve who looked completely torn between wanting to jump Danny and pass out from cute. “If he wants to, yeah, we could do that,” he said, smiling, trying to give Steve a meaningful look he hoped conveyed something roughly along the lines of _please help me_. Steve got it, and smirked back, then gathered Charlie up in his arms and swung him onto his shoulders.

“Ok, time to head to the tent, troops,” he said, with mock authority, and Charlie giggled.

Eventually they got settled in the tent, and Danny read them a bedtime story while Steve went up to the house to shower. He made it back just as the story was ending, and Charlie had already drifted off. Grace fell asleep shortly after, and Danny looked at Steve, over the kids’ heads, and felt his breath catch.

Steve looked so happy, so _full_ , and Danny’s heart broke a little at the regret that he couldn’t give this to Steve every day. And, yet, while on some level that thought made not having the kids more of the time worse, it also oddly helped. He wasn’t sure how or why, but somehow knowing Steve loved this as much as he did... it kind of made it easier... or more meaningful, or something, and so it just took up more space, filled more of his heart... it was strange and it was kind of tinged with sadness, but it was also bright and warm, and hopeful. Steve’s eyes locked with his, and Danny was pretty sure Steve could read everything that was in his heart, because he smiled, mouthed “I love you,” and Danny whispered it back, then closed his eyes on tears, but they were happy ones.


	3. Sunday

When Danny awoke in the morning, the first thing he noticed was that Charlie and Steve were not in the tent. Grace was still sleeping, so he got up quietly to go look for his boys. He found them in the living room, playing with what must have been Steve’s old things, pretending to be cowboys. Danny’s heart thumped loudly as he realized that Steve had been in Charlie’s room, had seen the things there, slept in those cowboy sheets, known that Charlie loved cowboys.... And had, what? Found his own childhood cowboy things? They each had very worn looking plastic pistols, and Charlie was wearing a red vest with a shiny Sheriff’s badge and a red felt cowboy hat with silver trim. Steve was wearing... well, it wasn’t a cowboy hat. Danny had to think back to his own hat-wearing days, but he was pretty sure it was a trilby, and just why Steve had one of those, he did not want to think about, it just did not... _yeah_. Resisting the urge to grab it off Steve’s head, he cleared his throat to make his presence known.

Steve looked up and saw Danny gazing at him, and smirked.

“What is that thing on your head, Steven?” Danny asked, forcing his hands by his side in fists to keep from reaching out for the monstrosity.

“It’s a _hat_ , Daniel,” Steve replied.

“Well, get it off right now, it looks ridiculous.”

Steve smirked in response, but took the hat off, bowing down to Danny as he did so, then tossing the hat at Danny, who decided _he_ could pull it off far better, and put it on his own head.

“Yeah, ok, works better on you,” Steve admitted, and Danny smiled smugly.

“Hands up, villain!” Charlie had taken advantage of Steve being distracted by the whole hat thing to capture the fugitive.

“Do not let him have actual handcuffs, please, Steven,” Danny warned.

“Speaking from experience, are you, Daniel?” Steve wondered with uncanny insight.

“Um.” Danny replied, eloquently. “Can we have breakfast, please?”

Steve grinned. “Yeah, sure thing.” And he turned to Charlie, who had taken the villain’s weapon and set it aside with his own as well as his hat and vest. Danny took his hat off and added it to the pile. “Charlie,” Steve asked, and something about his tone, Danny knew whatever Steve was about to ask was really important to him, and a lot was hanging on Charlie’s answer. Danny held his breath, finding himself for a second time this weekend anxious for his two boys. “Do you like pancakes?”

Charlie nodded. “We all love them, Uncle Steve. Do you?”

“Yeah, buddy, I love them, too. Wanna help me make some?”

Charlie nodded and hugged Steve, and Danny had to leave the room to collect himself. He found Grace in the study, coming into the house.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Danny said softly as he hugged her. “Sleep well?”

She smiled. “Yeah, not bad for a tent, actually. Uncle Steve has really nice camping gear. Way better than yours,” and she gifted him with a Steve-level smirk, and really, how had his sweet baby girl become so handy with that, of all of Steve’s expressions?

“The boys are making pancakes,” Danny said, as he shook his head at her snark.

Grace barely covered a laugh. “'The boys,'” she replied. “You love that, don’t you?”

Danny blushed, he knew. “Yeah, I think I kind of do,” he admitted.

She smiled sweetly in response. “Should we go make sure they don’t make too huge a mess?”

“Yeah, probably a good idea,” Danny admitted.

When they got to the kitchen, they saw that Steve had the things all set out, and he and Charlie were starting to make up the batter.

“Morning, Gracie!” Steve called. “Wanna help us make pancakes?”

“Sure,” she replied, smiling back at Danny as she went over to them to help out.

They mixed up the batter, making a bit of a mess (although Danny suspected that was entirely for his benefit), and then Steve helped Grace get Charlie set up to turn the pancakes when they were ready to flip, and then he stood back, looking at the scene wistfully. Catching Steve’s eye, Danny looked a question at him, eyebrows raised, expression soft and, he hoped, supportive.

Steve walked over to where Danny was standing, smiled at him, and whispered: “The last time pancakes were made in this kitchen, it was Mary making them, and we were arguing over the proper technique, and it was great, you know?”

Danny held back a laugh, and reached out a hand to Steve’s arm. “Babe, that’s so sweet.”

Steve closed his eyes. “That was the morning Deb died.”

He couldn’t help it, Danny actually gasped. “Oh, babe,” he whispered.

Steve shook his head. “That’s why I needed this, Danny.” He looked at the kids with so much love in his eyes, Danny almost fell over. “This is exactly what I needed.” And he quickly kissed Danny on the cheek, and walked back over to the kids to make sure they were following the Steve technique and not the Mary technique.

Danny allowed himself a moment to watch them, and then started gathering the rest of the things to set the table, because there was no way he was going to miss the chance to get all of them around the dining room table.

As they sat there, the four of them, around that special, meaningful table, Danny couldn’t help but feel that _this_ was what Sundays were for. The room was filled with sunlight, the faces were smiling and happy, the conversation was playful and loving... you just couldn’t ask for anything more wonderful. Oh, yeah, and the pancakes were pretty darn good, too.

But best, in Danny’s mind, was the way he could _see_ Steve healing from the pain of losing Deb. It was something Danny wished he’d known—that there had been pancakes that morning. Because of course, Steve’s mind would have bound the two together, and he wondered a little at what had led him to make pancakes for Grace that pivotal morning. But having the table full again, and with “family,” because he knew Steve really did consider Grace as much his niece as Joanie, and now Charlie was in his heart as well. And Danny could see on Steve’s face just how much that meant to him.

After they ate, and Steve was cleaning up, Danny saw Grace and Charlie engaged in negotiations. He walked over to them to make sure everything was ok.

“Danno,” Charlie said, turning to him, looking for all the world like he was about to broker a deal. “Grace wants to ride on Uncle Steve’s board, too.” He paused, like he knew he was about to ask something big. “Will you swim with me while they do?” And for one brief moment, Charlie reminded Danny so much of Steve it took his breath away.

“Sure thing, keiki,” Danny replied warmly. He turned to his daughter. “Be careful, ok?”

“Yeah, Danno,” she called as she ran off to tell Steve.

When Grace and Steve went out, Danny had to calm himself that she didn’t have a vest like Charlie did. Steve and Grace both pointed out that she was quite the excellent surfer and swimmer and would be fine, Danno, stop worrying.

He and Charlie played in the waves, together a bit more hesitant to venture out to deep water without Steve there, but they had as much fun as Danny had imagined, when he’d first thought that Charlie would love it here. As they splashed and laughed together, Danny realized it was the first chance they’d had for some time, just the two of them, in quite a while, and he realized that was something he really wanted to change.

“Uncle Steve really is like a seal,” Charlie said, once they’d collapsed on the chairs with their towels to dry off.

“Oh, yeah, keiki, how so?” Danny asked, hiding his amusement.

“He’s so good in the water!” Charlie started. “But he likes to be with us,” he continued, thoughtfully. “So, I guess he’s not really a seal.”

“Yeah, he does like to be with us,” Danny said, smiling.

“And we like being with him, too,” Charlie said, almost as if he were reassuring Danny of the fact.

“We sure do,” Danny replied, laughing silently to himself, maybe just a little amused that he’d been so worried about the two of them getting along.

Steve took Charlie out after he came back with Grace, and by the time they returned, they both looked in need of a nap. Steve suggested they just crawl in the tent to rest a bit while Danny and Grace made lunch. When Danny came back out to check on them, he found them cuddled together in the middle of the tent, both completely out. Danny went quietly back to the house to tell Grace.

“If he sleeps for too long now it’ll throw off his sleep schedule for tonight,” Grace pointed out.

Danny couldn’t resist. “Steve’s usually pretty good about sleeping well,” he managed before he started laughing.

Grace’s mouth dropped open. “Danno, some things I just do not need to know,” she said, rolling her eyes, but he could see her smiling anyway.

“Let’s just let them sleep for a little bit longer, then we’ll wake them up for lunch,” Danny said, pulling his daughter into a hug, kissing her on the head.

They sat on the lanai for a while, catching up on the latest dramas in Grace’s friends’ lives, and generally having one of those rare, honest, but lighthearted father-daughter conversations they just hadn’t had much time for since Charlie, and Danny was grateful, and found himself thinking that having a second parent to share this with, now that he had two kids, well, it kind of had its benefits....

Just as they were about to wake the boys, Charlie came out of the tent asking that they all go swimming after lunch.

They ate at the dining room table again, sandwiches and chips, and Danny caught Steve looking at him, a thoughtful smile on his face. Sweeping his glance around the table, Steve mouthed “Thank you” to Danny, who smiled warmly back.

After lunch, all four of them splashed in the waves, played in the sand, and basked in the sun “like seals,” Charlie said. Grace gave up on the roughhousing the boys were inclined to, and settled on the beach, but before long, Steve suggested they burry her legs and give her a mermaid tail, which Danny was fairly sure Grace absolutely loved a lot more than she let on. When she made him go get her phone so she could have a picture, he was certain he’d been right.

They all went in the water one last time, to rinse off, and even Grace joined in on the splashing. The sun was getting a bit low in the sky, and Danny suggested they head in and shower before dinner.

“Danno, can we have pizza for dinner?” Charlie asked Danny, while they were drying off before heading up to the house.

“Sure, keiki, that’s a great idea,” Danny said, smiling over at Steve, who he knew would be thinking “like father like son.”

But then Charlie continued: “Can we get pineapple and ham pizza?” And Danny froze.

“This is your doing, isn’t it, Steven?” He glared at Steve, who had the decency to look guilty.

“He asked my favorite kind....” Steve replied, by way of defense.

“Uh, huh,” was Danny’s only reply.

Grace couldn’t contain her laughter, and Danny spun on her, leveling an accusatory glare. “Do _not_ tell me you were in on this as well, monkey.”

“No, Danno, I swear, it was just them,” but she couldn’t stop laughing, and Danny was frankly not entirely sure he believed her.

They started for the house, and Charlie had another inspiration. “Can we eat in the tent?”

And now it was Danny’s turn to laugh, because food in sleeping areas was a McGarrett no-no. But, unless Danny was very much mistaken about the leanings of Steve’s heart, there was no way Steve would say “no” to his new best friend.

“You ever had pizza in a tent before, McGarrett?” Danny asked, on a particularly gleeful smirk. Grace laughed, and Danny turned to her. “You remember that one, huh, monkey?”

“Yeah, Danno. Kind of hard to forget,” she said, smiling hugely.

Steve was also smiling, with a strange look on his face, which made Danny suspect he had his own story there somewhere—one that, if he had to guess, based on the level of heat in Steve’s eyes, was _not_ a child friendly story. He decided he would try and get it out of him later, if he could. As part of payment for having inflicted pineapple pizza on him.

Pulling himself out of whatever reminiscence had captured him, Steve asked: “What’s the story with the pizza in the tent, Gracie?”

“Well,” she began, “one time on a camping trip with my Aloha Girls troop, Danno burnt the dinner, so he ordered pizza. He had to bribe the delivery guy to come all the way out to the camp site.” She paused for effect. "By the time he got there, we'd all given up and gone to bed, so Danno just tossed the boxes of pizza in the tents with us."

Danny had closed his eyes, and was shaking his head, knowing Steve would gloat over that one for a long time. He opened them swiftly, though, when it occurred to him that Steve and Grace were once more exchanging secret communications.

Grace bit her lip when he leveled a glare at her, but turned to Steve. “You know not to let him cook, right, Uncle Steve?”

Danny had to hand it to him, Steve resisted the temptation admirably. “He’s great with salad, though,” Steve said, almost as if he were defending Danny’s honor. Which, ok, made Danny blush a little.

“Well, thanks, everyone,” Danny said, grabbing his phone from the dining room table. “One thing at which I excel,” he said with a flourish as he hit speed dial for the pizza place near Steve’s, “is ordering pizza.”

And, as if in a show of support, all three of them hugged him at once, and he almost thought it was a fair trade for pineapple freaking pizza.

Danny made sure that Steve knew, with a series of glares, that he would be paying for this abomination. Several times over. Oddly, Steve didn’t seem to mind in the least.

After they finished the pizza, and Danny was gathering the leftovers to take up to the house, Steve pulled out a pack of sparklers.

“If you guys go brush your teeth now, when you come back, we can light these on the beach,” he said.

Even Grace looked excited about that, and Danny looked at Steve as if to say _you just had to bring explosives into this weekend, didn’t you_ , and Steve smirked.

So, while Danny put the pizza away, and Steve got the sparklers ready, Grace and Charlie went to brush teeth, and Grace wanted her phone so she could take pictures with the sparklers, and then there they were, his two sparkling children, with this man he had fallen so hard for, holding sticks of fire on the beach, holding sticks with tiny explosions on them—flickering, flaming, glowing in the dark night, and it seemed to Danny that it kind of summed his life up, right there. These sparks in the night, bright spots in the darkness, lights to find his way through the gloom. And it was dark enough, he just let the tears fall down his cheeks, and he even took some pictures with his phone, because he wasn’t going to need them to remember this, but he thought it would be nice to have them to look back at, in those moments of doom when he felt he needed a bright light to follow.

After they’d burned the sparklers all down, they sat there by the water for a while, just kind of enjoying the afterglow, chatting a little, and Charlie curled up on Steve’s lap, and fell asleep, and Grace started yawning and got up to go read for a bit in the tent, and Steve and Danny sat there, by the water, and Steve reached out for Danny’s hand, and Danny looked at him, and he knew his eyes were wet, and filled with love, and he saw that Steve’s eyes were glistening a little too. And he pressed his lips together, blinked, and tears fell down his cheeks, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Steve was smiling, and the tears falling down his cheeks were leaving tracks that shimmered in the moonlight. There was so much he wanted to say, he couldn’t imagine he would ever stop needing to tell Steve how much he loved him, how much he needed him, how much this all meant to him. And that was just exactly it, wasn’t it. That was how it was always going to be, and _that_ was an amazing realization. And he felt something shift and settle in his chest. Something that had been knocked loose a few weeks ago, when this had all started.... Some sense of rightness and safety and hope and love. And he looked in Steve’s eyes, and he saw that he knew—he knew, and he got it, too.

“I’ll stay here with the kids, you go up and get ready for bed,” Steve said.

Danny huffed out a breath, bordering on a sob. “That,” he said, moving toward Steve with a huge smile on his lips. “Is the most wonderful sentence I’ve heard in a very long time.” And he leaned in to kiss Steve. “Thank you for the most amazing weekend ever. I’m so lucky. Just so lucky. Thank you.”

Steve reached over and wiped Danny’s tears away. “Me, too, Danny. Me, too.”


End file.
